Finally Here

Hello everyone,

These last two days have been quite interesting!

On my flight to Madrid, I had a window seat. As we were flying into Spain, I was able to watch the sunrise over the mountains. One of the prettiest views I have ever seen! There was a guy named Chris sitting next to me. He is from North Carolina and is studying abroad in Madrid, so we had a nice conversation! However, when I flew into Bordeaux, things started to follow the pattern that the last few months had, nothing seemed to go right!

My pick up service was a little late because they were so busy. I panicked a little but managed to keep my nerves under control.  Then I was told that the office at my apartment was now closed, so I had nowhere to stay.  The two people who picked me up, Nicholas and Nathan, then got a call that another student needed a ride from the airport so we turned around to go get him. His name is Luan. When we introduced ourselves he asked where I had flown from. So I told him my flight pattern.  He was amazed because we had the exact same flight pattern but didn't remember seeing each other. So I asked him what university he was from. He said the University of Wisconsin - Green Bay.  I am not even joking.  We had never met until now and no one had ever told us about each other.  Talk about a coincidence!

Nathan and Nicholas offered to let us crash at their apartment for the night, and they were super cool and nice with everything!  But getting there was an adventure I would like to never repeat.  Not only had Luan and I dragged our very heavy luggage through 3 airports for the last twenty hours, now we had to drag it through part of the city, onto a very crowded tram, then through the city some more, up three flights of stairs to their apartment, and up to the bedrooms, which were of course on the third floor of their apartment.  I was so incredibly tired and sore, I didn't think I would move ever again!

Today we went to the school, I started some of our administrative process, and met a few more people.  Me and two other girls, from Germany, were then taken to our apartments.  They were in the same boat as me with having issues with their accommodations, so I didn't feel completely alone.  The person who dropped me off couldn't stay because they were busy again, which I understood, but I felt so confused, overwhelmed, and alone.  So much stuff was thrown at me within the last 30 hours, I couldn't remember most of it. Finally, I got to my apartment and had a little meltdown.

And then the power to our building randomly went out. Seriously, it's just one thing after another! So I left my little pity party and decided to see if I could find my tram stop.  I ended up finding it no problem.  It is in a really pretty spot.  It was so cool there so I just sat for an hour and watched all the fun and interesting things going on around me until it got dark out.  I felt 10 times better after that and explored a little on the way back to my apartment (about a 15 minute walk from the tram stop.)

This city is so beautiful, and even more so at night!!  So now I am going to finally unpack, take a nice hot shower, watch a movie, and get a lot of rest. Tomorrow is pretty much open, so I am going to attempt to get a tram pass and finish the process to open my bank account.  Then it is just explore, explore, explore!!

I'm feeling a lot better, so no worries!

-Krysta : )

"You are braver than you believe, stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think."

-Disney